


Can't Stand How Much I Need You

by theworstwolves



Series: The Syndicate [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: (I mean totally - Peter Hale - but idk about here, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Mob, M/M, Mentions of Murder, Outsider view of a relationship, POV Derek, Peter's an arse, Unhealthy Relationships, possibly, tagging to be safe), talk of fairy tales
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-12
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-15 12:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1304173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theworstwolves/pseuds/theworstwolves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott wakes up to an empty bed, it's not the best way to start the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Stand How Much I Need You

**Author's Note:**

> un-beta'd so any and all mistakes are my own.  
> I HATE the title so it may change if I come up with something better.

_March 1923_

It’s unusual for Peter to be awake when Derek gets out of bed. This is because, according to Peter, he keeps ‘ungodly hours’. But this morning his uncle is awake, and dressed, when Derek comes out of his room to start his day. He raises a questioning eyebrow as he starts to make food and at first it feels like Peter’s going to ignore him but in the end the man tells him, “I have somewhere to go today.” It’s vague as hell but Derek has known Peter long enough to know that it’s a good as he’s going to get, and that he’s lucky to have gotten that much of an explanation. He says goodbye to the closing door, wishing not for the first time that Peter would tell him things from time to time. It is a family business after all and though Derek is involved in most things there are certain pieces of his life Peter keeps secret. It’s not a lack of trust exactly, but Derek understands that sometimes it’s best if you’re the only one who knows things, especially with the life they lead.

*

It’s nine by the time Scott surfaces, that seems to be the time he always gets up now, Peter never makes him get up any earlier if there’s no reason too (and there’s often not) and it’s  rare that the boy sleeps passed then. It’s nice that he’s fallen into a routine so quickly Derek thinks, shows he’s comfortable here.

“You seen Peter?” He mumbles, rubbing on of his hands cross his eyes, yawning and blinking a few times before looking questioningly up at him. He takes in the shirt Scott’s wearing, it’s long, one of Peter’s, and inside out, it doesn’t look like it was slept in. Derek tries not to keep track of the kids sleeping habits, because doing so inevitably leads to keeping track of Peter’s sleeping habits and thinking about Peter in any type of situation involving a bed is something Derek want’s nothing to do with, but he knows that Scott didn’t sleep in his own room last night, which means he went to sleep next to Peter, and woke up alone.

It’s obviously not the first time it’s happened, Peter never stays in bed passed seven, is far too busy to allow himself to stay in bed, but when it does happen he’s in his office by the time Scott wakes up. Today he’s not, today Derek has no clue where he is – and he has no idea how to tell Scott that.

It was bound to happen sooner or later - his father did it all the time and Peter’s no different, there have been days when Derek’s woken to nothing in the house but a note on the side saying ‘on a boat’ and not seen the man for weeks – it was bound to happen but Derek can’t help but cruse the timing. It’s only two weeks since Peter got shot - that in itself is an issue, he was sure if Peter had seen a doctor he’d have been told not to leave the house for at least another week – but it’s Scott Derek’s more concerned for. Scott killed someone, for Peter, and right now it looks like the man’s left for god knows how long without even telling him.

Derek thinks about the first time he killed someone and it makes him feel even worse about the whole situation. He was three years older than Scott is now, it’s not much granted but he remembers feeling like a terrified child when it happened. It was just after his parents died and he was fucking lost, Laura was talking about leaving, Peter was falling apart and the family looked like an easy target. It hadn’t been, Derek had shown that, but he still wishes that he’d been older, that he hadn’t had to do it, it happened so long ago and he’s still feels like he’s only a kid himself, he can only imagine how Scott feels.

He sighs, after letting the silence between them go one for too long, though Scott currently seems too tired to notice something is wrong.   “He went out.” Derek settles for, it’s true, lying to Scott about Peter is probably a terrible idea. However when Scott asks when Peter will be back and Derek can’t give him an answer he deflects, starts making him coffee and tries to ignore the second stretching silence.

*

That keeps Scott quiet for about an hour, while he eats breakfast, washes and gets dressed. After about five minutes of awkwardly hanging about in the kitchen he sighs and asks, “Where did he go?” Derek looks up from the paper he’s reading and shrugs, it’s not the best response to give, in fact it’s rather rude, but Peter’s like this and Scott needs to get used to it. “You do know where he went?” Scott asks, needlessly questioning his shrug and Derek feels his own jaw go tight. He’s not angry at Scott – okay maybe he is a little for the questioning – but at Peter, because he hasn’t left like this since Scott’s been here, and now Derek’s left to try and explain. “No…” He tells him, “And I don’t know when he’s coming back.”

Scott swallows, nods and then just kind of stands there for a bit, like he’s thinking maybe of another question to ask, one that would give him a better answer. It’s clear that none comes to mind because after a while his shoulders kind of slump and he walks out of the room.

Derek can’t help but feel for him, Peter’s a bastard, hell, he’s not much better himself, but it seems like Scott just doesn’t get that. Or worse that he does get that, and is for some reason fine with it, happy to look past it. The problem is sometimes he’s looking for something that isn’t there. He sure there are parts of Peter that Scott has seen that Derek has no idea about, but on the other hand people can only go so deep. Hales leave, that’s what they do, and it’s likely that Peter hasn’t even thought about the consequences behind that action.

*

When Peter’s here Derek normally never notices Scott, he’s not there to be noticed, at least not by Derek, he’s there doing things with Peter and generally staying out of his way. He’s not staying out of his way today. He just seems to be under his feet all of the time, hanging around. It’s not even the fact that he’s hanging around that gets to Derek, it’s the fact the he’s trying to pretend he isn’t. It makes Derek question what the hell it is he gets up to when Peter is around, and then regret thinking that almost instantly.

He manages about two hours of trying to get on with the work he’s been left but it’s hard. Scott seems so lost without Peter, he’s never really seen the two apart, when Scott’s on his own it’s because he wants to be, not because he’s abandoned. He wonders if maybe Scott feels awkward around him, only considers this to be home when Peter’s around.

He sends Scott away, he can’t think of anything else to do. And sure he feels bad about it, but he’s never said he’s a patient man and Scott is Peter’s responsibility, Derek’s not a babysitting service, whatever his uncle may seem to think. Perhaps when asking Scott to leave he could have phrased it slightly better than _Jesus Christ just go fucking steal something_ but there’s really only so much moping he can take. Scott leaves with a small shrug, not seeming to put out by the suggestion. It’ll probably help him take his mind of things, not that that’s the sort of thing Derek will ever tell him. It seems to him that Scott’s pretending that it doesn’t bother him that he has no idea where Peter is, that he woke up to an empty bed and no promise of a return ,they’re both stubborn like that. He’s seen Peter pay attention to the girls in the clubs like he doesn’t have some he cares about to come home to, and while Scott may not be Peter is sure as hell old enough to stop being so childish about whatever kind of a relationship they have going on here. It’s probably why he didn’t tell Scott he was leaving, he never tells Derek, he’s probably trying to pretend that Scott is no different.

*

He doesn’t see the kid again until the sun goes down, he spends the time working, considers leaving the house to pick up the stuff Peter has waiting for him at  the dock but finds himself deciding against it, worrying what will happen if Scott comes home to  a completely empty house.

When Scott does come back he’s red faced from the last of the winter chill but he’s smiling. He holds his hand out to Derek and shows him the two  diamond cufflinks in his palm, Derek frowns, “That’s all you managed to get?”, he doesn’t realise how accusatory his tone is until Scott’s face falls and he shoves his prize back in his pocket. “Have you ever tried to steal the same thing from the same person twice?” He asks with a huff and Derek has a feeling that this is the kind of thing Peter would praise him for, all Derek can manage is a small nod and a non-committal ‘well done’.

*

He finds Scott sat on the couch later that evening with an old book of fairy tales on his lap, it’s one of the ones that was brought when Cora was born, the same book Derek shoved up in the loft with the rest of their things when his sisters skipped town, Peter must have gotten it down. He thinks perhaps that that makes it angry, that Derek hid it all those years ago only for Peter to get it back out again – to get it back out for Scott. He sighs, he’s seen the two reading together, Scott struggling over words he doesn’t know and Peter helping him.  He looks from the book to Scott’s face, he hasn’t registered Derek’s arrival, is looking down at the pages with his brow furrowed and his tongue caught between his teeth.

He sits next to him, trying not to think of helping Cora learn to read, it’s really nothing like that, she was a lot younger than Scott, and besides, Derek’s not sure how he feels about comparing the two, or even comparing his feelings to the two. It looks like Scott’s a permanent fixture in their lives now but Derek used to think that about a lot of people and none of them are still here.

“Where are you stuck?” He asks quietly, Scott points to a word, blushes slightly and tells Derek that while he’s pretty sure he knows how to pronounce it he doesn’t know what it means, that he hasn’t seen it before, or heard anyone use it. He looks embarrassed, it’s in a book of stories aimed at kids far younger than him, “Peter said the only way you get to learn these things is to keep reading right?” Derek nods, angles the book closer towards him.

“It says villain” He tells Scott quietly, “it means bad guy.” Scott nods in understanding, looks back down at the page and Derek thinks that means he’s gone back to reading, question answered. He takes the time to skim the page himself, to see that he’s reading Snow White, he smiles to himself, he remembers his mother questioning just how appropriate a story that ends with a woman dancing herself to death in red hot shoes was for a child to read, only for his father to laugh and point out that their lifestyle wasn’t exactly appropriate.

“That’s what we are, isn’t it?” Scott’s voice is quiet, almost like he wasn’t sure he was going to ask the question until it came out, “The bad guys?”

The problem with the question is that Derek can’t say no, because for all intents and purposes Scott’s right, there’s no version of their narrative in which they’re the ‘good guys’, they’re morally grey at best and that doesn’t seem like it’s the best thing to say right now.  He’s reminded again that it’s only a few weeks since Scott pulled the trigger on that cop, and in the black and white world of the fairy tales he’s reading there’s no way that can be justified.

He takes the book off Scott and closes it, because if his family has taught him anything it’s that running away from his problems is actually a pretty sound solution.

“Come, let’s get some food, you were out over lunch you must be starving.”

*

He sends Scott to bed at ten, feeling bad that the kid ends up in his own room and not Peter’s, he knows it’s been a few weeks since he’s slept there, even longer since he’s done it alone. He wonders vaguely what happens if Peter doesn’t come back, if tomorrow is the same as today. He thinks of when he was younger, sitting on the stairs leading to the front door in the early hours, waiting for his father to come home, sometimes falling asleep there disappointed.

But his father always came how, and so does Peter. It’s late though, and Derek’s asleep when he hears the voices raised down the hall. He blinks his eyes open to see the time on the clock; he’s not going to question what Peter was doing that kept him busy until three AM.

Not that he has to, because Scott is, he can hear the boy shouting, his words sound slightly choked but that doesn’t take away from the anger in them.

“You weren’t there…” he’s saying, “Is that what you do? You just walk out without bothering to tell people, I thought, fuck, I thought…”

Scott stops talking and that and Derek doesn’t dwell on what Peter did to get him to stop, but he does wonder if the boy knows how lucky he is, to get away with talking to Peter like that. The first time Derek shouted at him he was told that he knew where the door was, and if he wasn’t happy with the way things were being handled he could always go find his sisters. He’s seen Peter’s employees cower at the thought of having to tell him anything he might not want to here, and yet here Scott is in the early hours chewing Peter out the way he deserves to be, and not getting any backlash for it.

It was the same with his mother and father, but Derek decides not to think about what that could mean.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took a while to get out. God I've gotten so used to writing Scott's POV this was hard. I think it all gets a bit convoluted so sorry about that.  
> Thank you for all the comments, they really do mean so much to me <3  
> As always come spam me over at thehalesyndicate on tumblr and make the blog less dead.


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